Pope Benedict XVI in Rome has made a plea for peace in the Middle East, as he celebrated his first Christmas Eve mass since becoming pontiff. He spoke to thousands of people packed into St Peter's Basilica and watching on screens in the square outside. The mass was broadcast live to 46 nations. Calling on Roman Catholics to think of those in Bethlehem, he said: "We wish to pray for peace in the Holy Land." At noon on Sunday he will deliver his Christmas message to the world. The BBC's David Willey says the Pope made an impassioned plea for peace in his homily on Christmas Eve. The Pope appears very conscious that this glittering ceremony is viewed by millions of people all over the world, our correspondent says. In his homily, the pontiff stressed the traditional meaning of Christmas. He went on: "On this night, when we look towards Bethlehem, let us pray in a special way for the birthplace of our redeemer and for the men and women who live and suffer there. ... http://news.bbc.co.uk

An Iraqi court has ruled that some of the most prominent Sunni Muslims who were elected to parliament last week won't be allowed to serve because officials suspect that they were high-ranking members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party.Knight Ridder has obtained a copy of the court ruling, which has yet to be circulated to the public.The ruling is likely to dampen the Bush administration's hopes that the election would bring more of the disaffected Sunni minority into Iraq's political process and undermine Sunni support for the insurgency. Instead, the decision is likely to stoke fears of widening sectarian divisions in a nation already in danger of descending into civil war.Adil al Lami, the chief electoral official of the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq, told Knight Ridder that he would honor the court's decision and that none of the accused Sunnis would appear on the final list of parliament members....http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/13477141.htm

They rode east along the highway into the morning sun Friday, 11 American Indians on horseback, each carrying an eagle feather, led by a man from Porcupine, S.D., who had dreamt last March that this day would come.They rode to remember their ancestors. Thirty-eight of them were hanged in Mankato on Dec. 26, 1862, in what has been called the largest mass execution in American history.More Indians on horseback are expected to join the procession during the weekend ride. It will end Monday, when they will enter Mankato near the site where gallows once stood and conduct a final ceremony."I'm a little anxious," said Jim Miller, 57, holding a sacred staff covered with buffalo fur. He was sitting atop the lead horse, which was pawing the snow-covered ground outside the community center on the Lower Sioux Indian Community in Morton. "I'm happy -- I'm fulfilling my dream," he added....http://www.startribune.com/stories/462/5800336.html

Iraq's electoral commission said Saturday it would carry out a court decision to remove 90 people who were members Saddam's Hussein's outlawed Baath party from the tickets of political parties and coalitions that participated in Dec. 15 elections. The Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq did not name any of the 90 people or say if any were likely to be elected when final results are released in early January. Earlier this month, the de-Baathification commission, a body charged with removing senior members of Saddam's party from government posts, recommended that nearly 185 people running as candidates be banned from taking part in the elections. That’s some Democracy when people don’t get to freely vote for whoever they want. But Democracy is just a bad delusion as freedom can not exist in any Democracy, but most people think it’s great. It is for the Elite who get to pick the candidates and the issues. And those who are in the majority at the moment...http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=1440532

In the brisk Washington real estate market, the white colonial was an easy sale three bedrooms, easy access to a major commuting route and an acre of land, a rarity in the tightly packed suburbs. However, the 18th-century house had one thing the McMansions could never claim the original Uncle Tom's cabin. Attached to the side is a small, one-room building, its walls made of graying split oak beams. A massive stone chimney rises at the back, above the large hearth where slaves once tended meals for a plantation owner. Among the farm's slaves was Josiah Henson, the man whom Harriet Beecher Stowe used as a model for the Uncle Tom character in her 1852 novel on slavery, "Uncle Tom's Cabin."...http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory?id=1439859&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312

Nigeria's government will provide all anti-retroviral drugs needed to fight HIV/Aids free of charge within two weeks, a health ministry official says. Dr Abdulsalami Nasidi told the BBC the government planned to have 250,000 people on the drugs within a year. After India and South Africa, Nigeria has the most HIV infections at 4m. The BBC's Africa editor Martin Plaut says with such a high infection rate, fighting HIV has now become a national priority in the country. Nigeria has been stung into action by criticism from the aid agency Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) that the government was asking Aids patients to pay for their drugs, which it got free. The project will be financed by a $250m grant from the Global Fund to fight Aids, tuberculosis and malaria as well as from money released after Nigeria's international debts were cancelled. ...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4556768.stm